GATLIN SHOULDNT BE WORRIED ABOUT BOLT, GAY AND POWELL JUST YET

Justin Gatlin shared the 100 metre world record for a very short time with Asafa Powell before he was banned in 2006 for testing positive for elevated levels of testosterone. He makes a return to the track just over six months from now and already he has started to talk about challenging world record holder Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and his countryman Tyson Gay on the track.

Gatlin has obviously been away too long because there are several things that he has obviously not yet taken into consideration.

When Gatlin clocked 9.77 in Doha, it made him the joint fastest man in the world at that time. Since then Powell, his main nemesis then, lowered his personal best to 9.74 (the world record that Usain Bolt broke) and eventually to 9.72s.
Bolt came along in May 2008 and amazed the world with a 9.76s clocking in Jamaica and then 9.72 in New York later that same month.

Bolt would smash that record in Beijing and smash it again in Berlin this past August. As of August 2009, Bolt is officially .19 seconds faster than Gatlin has ever run, even faster .27 if you consider Gatlin’s best legal time of 9.85s since his 9.77 record has been stripped.

Powell and Gay, too, are .13 and .14 faster as well. If Gatlin and Bolt should race at their best, then Gatlin would be about the distance Powell finished behind Bolt in Berlin, a city block and a half.

But will it even come to that? Gatlin is not even certain to get a chance to race against the world’s best sprinters. Like Englishman Dwayne Chambers, Gatlin may be overlooked as the Diamond League gets underway this season. Meet organisers, especially those in Europe, are not inclined to invite Gatlin because they do not want the press about the meet to be about the drug-tainted American. In a time of recession, who needs the negative publicity?

As it turns out Gatlin may only get to race against Bolt et al in South Korea in 2011 and again in 2012, and that is if he makes the top three in the sprints in his own country.

Gatlin has not raced competitively in more than three years and at a US trials he would be up against a healthy Tyson Gay, a healthy and focussed Walter Dix, Mike Rodgers, and perhaps a few new threats to Tyson Gay’s crown.
Life is not going to be easy for Justin Gatlin when he returns. I would suggest that he learns to creep once more before he starts thinking about running with lightning.